Urban Kvetch: Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Now, I've got nothing against the people or even the land. The problem I have is with people who think they're doing anything other than paying for the right to say they're not at Miami Beach. You'r...
Urban Kvetch: Over-eager Busboys
Over-eager busboys
"Get away from our plates!" We don't care if there are only morsels left. You know, in many places in the world it's actually bad manners for a busboy to lurk and wait to snatch up your plat...
Urban Kvetch: Homies
Homies
David Gonzalez says he created these one-inch tall plastic figurines with names such as "Big Vato," "Dr. Bomba" and "El Grumpy" out of love, and we can only imagine that it was for the same reason that ...
Urban Kvetch: Schnorrers at Yonah Schimmel’s Knishery
Schnorrers at Yonah Schimmel's Knishery
For crying out loud, this is like trying to win at three card monty. The house wins every time. Schimmel's has been here since 1910. Do you really think that you are the...
Urban Kvetch: Faux Mitzvahs
Faux Mitzvahs
What's the average American kid to do when his/her Jewish counterparts are having the bar/bat mitzvahs of the century? Have their parents throw a faux mitzvah...
Urban Kvetch: JDate
JDate
The Internet ad reads: "760,424 blue-eyed women at JDate.com and counting," and another tallies green-eyed men. Is JDate encouraging us to JHate? Of course lots of Jews are light as can be. But with the ...
Urban Kvetch: Anti-Anti Smokers
Anti-anti smokers
Smokers are bad enough. But even worse are the vociferous groups (sometimes nonsmokers themselves!) that brand efforts to limit smoking as "fascist." As long as I have to breathe your secondh...
Urban Kvetch: Gardens in Brooklyn
Gardens in Brooklyn
People from Brooklyn always want to show you their gardens. "I could never afford this garden in Manhattan," they tell me. Come on. Your garden is three square feet. You can't fit four toma...
Rain Dances
_(excerpted from original article)_
"I'm black and a Jew—I swear I could spend years in therapy," Rain Pryor says. "But what's the point? I'd rather write about my life and perform it."
Pryor, the daughter ...
The Moral Minority
Sick and tired of the religious right? Meet the men and women increasingly organizing around progressive causes as people of faith. Anya Kamenetz reports on the religious left.
Out From Under
South Africa, 1936: A young German couple begins a strange new life in this excerpt from Shana Liebman's novel in progress, based on the experiences of her grandparents.
Once You Go JAP…
Joshua Rubin photographs five punk sirens as they straighten their hair, cut calories and construct themselves as capitalist subjects.
